“Women dinnae always choose wisely.” He ignored Sigimor’s snort of laughter.
“Do ye nay want her for more than a lass to warm your bed then? But then I am thinking ye ken weel that she will be marked if the news of her marriage being naught but a lie gets round.”
“She is nay like that,” he snapped. “’Tis nay as ye try to make it sound.”
“Yet ye will offer her nay more than a few nights and then send her home?”
“Aye, because I cannae offer her more. I am nay good enough for her, and her family would be quick to say so. I dinnae think she need worry about the news of her false marriage causing her trouble, either, for the Lucettes will wish to keep that as quiet as possible if only to keep the Murrays from wanting their blood. And before ye mention Gregor, the only reason Gregor has himself a Murray lass is because they traveled together and she was a maid. He ne’er would have even tried to reach so high otherwise. There really wasnae much choice if she was to hold fast to her honor and he his. ’Tis just good that they wanted to be together. If I already had a wee piece of land, a nice wee house, and some coin, I might try to woo Arianna, but I dinnae have any of that yet.”
“Brian, if ye wait until ye have all ye think she wants or needs, ye will be sitting alone in your fine wee house with your nice full purse, looking out at your wee piece of land, and wishing ye had ne’er let her go, but it will be too late. Aye, and she will be set somewhere with a new husband and five or six children at her skirts.”
That was a thought that chilled him to the bone but he quickly pushed it from his mind. “I think I would rather discuss what to do about these cursed DeVeaux and Amiel.” He sighed when Sigimor just stared at him. “I will think on what ye have said but may we now talk on the threat that still hangs o’er her head? I think that is of a more immediate importance.”
“As ye wish.”
Sigimor began to give his opinions on what Brian should do about the ones hunting Arianna and the boys, most of them dealing with the many ways they might be killed. It took Brian several minutes to push all of Sigimor’s words concerning the possibility of keeping Arianna for his own right out of his mind and he knew it was because his cousin was advising him to take what he wanted anyway. He forced his thoughts to remain fixed upon ridding them of the threat posed by Amiel and the DeVeaux. It was all the future he could allow himself to think about.
Arianna watched Lady Jolene settle herself in the chair by the fire. She poured the woman a drink of cider and served her. As she poured one for herself, she tried to discern any scorn or disapproval in the woman’s eyes or actions but saw none.
“You did not have a good marriage, did you?” said Jolene as she helped herself to one of the honey-sweetened oatcakes on a tray set between them.
“Ah, nay, I didnae.” Arianna was not comfortable with the topic and wished she had not returned to her bedchamber where Lady Jolene had so easily found her alone. “Did Brian nay tell ye all about the trouble there has been?”
“Do you mean how the man lied to you and how this brother of his wishes to kill those boys, maybe even give you to an old enemy of the family?”
“Aye. I was hoping to get to my family before any trouble reached us, but that plan failed. I felt a wee bit guilty about it but decided no one could have kenned that the enemy would be willing to sink a whole ship just to kill the boys.”
“Nay, that would have surprised most anyone. You were very fortunate to fall into the MacFingals’ hands. They are a rough lot of men, a little wild, a little uncivilized, but good men despite that.”
“Aye, they are. Brian assured me again and again that his brothers would get my boys safely to Scarglas and they did, boys they had no blood tie to and who were trailing right behind them men willing to kill anyone just to get them. To do so does show how good the men are. Rough ways and a wee bit of wildness doesnae matter.”
“Then mayhap you should consider keeping Brian.”
Arianna nearly choked on the bite of oatcake she had just taken and had to take a quick drink of cider to clear it away. “Sir Brian has shown no interest in my keeping him.”
“Nay? He insisted upon sharing this bedchamber with you even though there was no need for such protection while you are here. What I saw when he did so was a man who did not wish to sleep alone.”
“That doesnae mean he wants to keep me. We both ken that men can bed and sleep with women all the time and nay wish to actually keep them.”
“Men also do not find it easy to speak of such things.”
“So I must ask him if he wishes to stay with me? I must be the one to set myself up for the blow that will come when he says nay, thank ye kindly?”
“Quite possibly. It depends on how much you would like him to stay with you. Do you care for the man, Arianna?”
“I wouldnae be scandalizing the whole keep by sharing his bed if I didnae.”
“True, but I was not speaking of passion. Sir Brian MacFingal is a very handsome man. Near all the MacFingal men are. I was rather hoping you would be honest about what lies in your heart.”
“I think I love the man.”
“Only think?”
“I have spent the last five years of my life with a mon who told me, near every time he spoke to me, that I was riddled with faults from how I looked to how I could please no mon in the bedchamber. Then comes Sir Brian and suddenly I ken what my kinswomen spoke of when they spoke of desire, loving, passion. I dinnae ken if that clouds my mind or nay. ’Tis verra hard to tell what is in your heart when ye are feeling things ye ne’er have, strong things that overwhelm ye from time to time.”
Jolene nodded. “I can understand that. Yet ’tis my belief that a woman would not feel such things unless a piece of her heart was already involved.”
“Nay, she probably wouldnae.” Arianna shook her head. “I am trying to keep my heart closed to him.”
